We should really get together a video compendium of recent FOX News antics. You could probably find a dozen or more "Osama, oops I mean Obama" "slip-ups", at least one of their premier anchors joking that Obama should be assasinated (and then openly laughing about it). Not to mention the hundreds or thousands of clips of them singing the praises of worst presidential administration in U.S. history.

Fox News is quite literally the NeoCon's PR department. They are truly nauseating. Anyone else old enough to remember the days when there was unbiased, objective journalism in the U.S.?

I'd like to know that too. If, "terrorist fist jab," was was made up by the commentator, or by someone at the news organization, I can see this as another opportunity to lambast Fox. Given that the phrase was presented in the first few seconds of the clip, as but one of a collection of phrases that I assume other (widely read, seen, heard) people have used to describe Obama's action, with no attribution, I'm unsure of its origin.

I'd like to know that too. If, "terrorist fist jab," was was made up by the commentator, or by someone at the news organization, I can see this as another opportunity to lambast Fox. Given that the phrase was presented in the first few seconds of the clip, as but one of a collection of phrases that I assume other (widely read, seen, heard) people have used to describe Obama's action, with no attribution, I'm unsure of its origin.

She says it wasn't the way she characterized the bump, but rather how it "had been characterized by the media". Looking through googlenews, I couldn't find any references prior to June 7th (and those were articles about Fox)

I went looking for the source of this phrase last night after I first heard about it, and I also came up empty. Does anyone know what segment of "the media" was referencing this as a "terrorist fist jab?"

I went looking for the source of this phrase last night after I first heard about it, and I also came up empty. Does anyone know what segment of "the media" was referencing this as a "terrorist fist jab?"

It appears that it wasn't a member of the media as she claims - it was a random internet schmuck posting to Cal Thomas' blog on Human Events; the comment was deleted, but it's referenced here in a Slate column. Here's the Thomas "column" that elicited the comment.

It appears that it wasn't a member of the media as she claims - it was a random internet schmuck posting to Cal Thomas' blog on Human Events; the comment was deleted, but it's referenced here in a Slate column.

That's actually better than I would have thought, and given that the slate piece originally attributed it to a commentator before being corrected several days after the Fox broadcast, while it still shows major journalistic negligence, I'll take her apology at face value - I don't think she was intending to be malicious.

You can't tease a piece on the Democratic Presidential nominee by suggesting that he may have engaged in a "terrorist fist jab" without supporting that hypothesis in the meat of your story. There wasn't a single person on the air who alluded to any negative meaning, and she never attributed it to anyone specific, presumably because she'd just read it at Human Events and thought it sounded entertaining for her intro. Wherever she got it, it was grotesquely inappropriate, and honestly, she deserved to be reprimanded for it.

The problem is that the damage is already done. Uneducated morons who still think that he is an Islamic terrorist will count this in the "He done confirmed mah opinion, y'all!" column.

I was looking over this site - http://exposeobama.com/I find the whole site to be high comedy. The video that they run about Obama going to a "Islamic school"

Lie: Barack Obama attended a radical Muslim school, where he was taught Wahhabism.

Truth: Obama attended a Muslim elementary school largely because he couldn't afford to go to an American school. He was not taught Wahhabism, or any form of radical Islam. From his second book, "The Audacity of Hope" page 274:

"Without the money to go to the international school that most expatriate children attended, I went to local Indonesian schools and ran the streets with the children of farmers, servants, tailors, and clerks."

Lie: Barack Obama attended a Muslim school for four years.

Truth: Obama attended a Muslim school for two years, later attending a Catholic school.

The problem is that the morons of the world won't go out and seek actual answers to their doubts, they'll lean on idiots like E.D. Hill to think for them.

What I am curious about is ... are Republicans who see this embarrassed about Fox News? They are so far below the line of respectable journalism that it approaches 'shocking'.

I don't watch Fox News. It caters to the Rush Limbaugh brand of hard right conservatism that I don't associate with. Unfortunately as that mindset becomes more and more prominent in the Republican party, I find myself pushed further and further into the Independent camp.

It's not like the Dems don't have their own wackjobs though. For every Rush, there's an Al Sharpton. For every Ann Coulter there's a Michael Moore.

In Fox's defense though, I notice that most of the crazy comments that people jump all over come from their tabloid-esque morning shows. They run a lot of fluff garbage during non-peak times that strives for sensationalism/soundbites over solid reporting.

What I am curious about is ... are Republicans who see this embarrassed about Fox News? They are so far below the line of respectable journalism that it approaches 'shocking'.

Why would I be embarrassed? To be embarrassed I would need some ownership in the channel or the newscast, and I have neither. I'm embarrassed about television journalism in the United States, which includes Fox News.

Are you embarrassed by MSNBC and Chris Matthews saying that Obama sends shivers down his leg or whatever?

Are you embarrassed by MSNBC and Chris Matthews saying that Obama sends shivers down his leg or whatever?

Chris Matthews on George W. Bush:

"He looks great in a military uniform. He looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes West.""We're proud of our President. Americans love having a guy as President, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton.... Women like a guy who's President. Check it out." "There are some things you can't fake. Either you can throw a strike from sixty feet or you can't. Either you can rise to the occasion on the mound at Yankee Stadium with 56,000 people watching or you can't. On Tuesday night, George W. Bush hit the strike zone in the House that Ruth Built.... This is about knowing what to do at the moment you have to do it--and then doing it. It's about that 'grace under pressure' that Hemingway gave as his very definition of courage."

Yes, TV journalism sucks. Fox is at the absolute bottom of the barrel. Surely you can bring yourself to admit that it's inappropriate to call Senator Barack Obama's wife a "baby mama."

As a conservative (Canadian, so not Republican really) I would have to definitely agree - Fox's treatment of Obama has been pretty disgustingly condescending and insulting. 'Osama' and 'Baby Mama' is disrespectful and unprofessional to the n'th degree. On the other hand, Fox News for many years now has been less a news outlet and more a far right wing propaganda station, so I don't see why it's quite so shocking. There are extreme examples on either side of the spectrum that are all ridiculous and not worth paying any attention to. It's sad that the once noble 'news media' has been reduced to caricatures of themselves. CBC up here in Canada is pretty much the left wing version of Fox News (with some increased veneer of professionalism, since Canadians wouldn't go for the rah rah style of Fox). The BBC is pretty much the only good journalistic news media there is anymore, as far as I'm concerned.

I'll agree with the conservatives here who've stated that the problem is pretty much universal amongst U.S. journalism. However, FOX reminds me of the Germans in WW2 with their blatant propaganda machine.

Ironically, I get most of my U.S. news from the BBC. How sad is it that at least some Americans have to look to other countries for decent journalism about our own country. I will say that NPR is still a breath of fresh air, and display the highest level of journalistic integrity, in my view.

It's also refreshing to see some Republicans/conservatives here who can at least admit that FOX is what it is.

Exactly. I think this was a jab at the possibility of there being a black woman in the white house. I realize the term 'baby mama' has made it into general pop culture, but here it's clearly a derogatory term against Mrs Obama. It doesn't even make sense for them to use it outside of this context.

I believe it was NPR that once had an interview with Stephen Colbert (as himself rather than as his Colbert Report persona) in which he talked about how Fox News inspired his term "Truthiness." I haven't been able to find the piece since, but his take was something like:

Quote from: Stephen Colbert, by way of Autistic Angel

There's that old saying about how Satan's greatest accomplishment was tricking humanity into believing he doesn't exist; I think Fox News' greatest accomplishment is tricking Americans into believing journalism doesn't exist. That it's just in the presentation. Here's a studio with a nice desk and some graphics and 'my God, look at the teeth on this woman,' and that's "the news."

They give people the facade of journalism to get short bursts of credibility, but I think more importantly, every time cracks start showing through, they turn it around to undermine the very idea of a free press. "We have to do it this way because everyone else is just biased the other way," as if all the facts are hopelessly relative and there's no way to know the truth.

I see a lot of that even in this thread: Fox News has run two blatant hit jobs on Barack Obama in three days, and when people try to call them out on it, the topic somehow shifts to the idea that *all* news media is completely unreliable.

An off-hand comment by Chris Matthews about his personal excitement for Barack Obama is not the same thing as a Fox News team running a story, complete with pre-made graphics, titled, "Outraged Liberals: Stop Picking on Obama's Baby Mama!" Or their ficticious stories about Obama's militant muslim schooling. Or their repeated mislabeling of disgraced Republicans as (D)emocrats. Or their seven-minute news segment about all the imaginary graphic pornography in Mass Effect.

An off-hand comment by Chris Matthews about his personal excitement for Barack Obama is not the same thing as a Fox News team running a story, complete with pre-made graphics, titled, "Outraged Liberals: Stop Picking on Obama's Baby Mama!" Or their ficticious stories about Obama's militant muslim schooling. Or their repeated mislabeling of disgraced Republicans as (D)emocrats. Or their seven-minute news segment about all the imaginary graphic pornography in Mass Effect.